Stay Cool
by Medusa Davenport
Summary: Soul is distraught to learn that (Male) Crona is interested in Maka, and mortified when Black*Star, Kid, and their weapons pitch in to help him woo her. As a new threat begins eating at the DWMA from within, the bonds of weapon and meister will be tested to their limit- and Soul might not be able to stay cool under all of this pressure.
1. Chapter 1

"COME ON, CRONA," Black*Star shouted. He yanked on the other tech's arm as the skinny boy hesitated. "You can learn everything about girls in the girls' locker room!"

"Yeah!" chimed in Ragnarok, popping out above Crona's head and trying to push as Black*Star pulled.

Soul slowed as he walked by the scene, coming to a halt in front of his friends. "What the hell are you doing?" he asked, eyeing them lazily.

"We're going to peek in the girls' locker room!" Black*Star shouted. "Chrona needs help with a girl, so I'm teaching him all my secrets. Hyaaaaah!"

"... you're teaching him to spy on the girls' locker room?"_ If that's Black*Star's secret, it's not exactly a shocker that he's never dated anyone._ Soul continued to eye the assassin for a moment longer, then shifted his gaze to Crona. "Did you really ask Black*Star to help you with girls?"

The purple-haired tech was looking at the ground, slouching in defeat. "I can't just ask a girl out. What if she says no? What if she laughs at me? I don't know how to deal with that."

Black*Star shouldered his way in front of Crona and planted his thumb squarely in the middle of his own chest. "So_ I'm_ going to teach him how to get the ladies! Not that he'll ever be a big star like me, but a big star knows some tricks!"

"Yeah, like spying on the girls' locker room," Soul scoffed.

"Come on! You know you wanna try it out, too. I'll let you have a space in my V.I.P. Room!" Black*Star grabbed Soul's wrist and Crona's and yanked both of them along behind him.

"What?! No way!" Soul protested, struggling against the assassin's grip. But he was a weapon, not a tech, and Black*Star was _strong_. His resistance amounted to a lot of pitiful flailing, in the end. "Maka will kill me!"

"So don't tell her!" Black*Star grinned, his eyes fixed on his goal. He dragged them, apparently oblivious to their struggles, through the halls and out the door, around the side of the school.

At last they halted outside, staring up at a narrow vent shaft.

"Alright, you first, Crona, since you're the skinniest!" Black*Star yelled.

"Wait, we're going into that ventilation shaft?" Crona asked, his eyes widening. "I don't know if I want to go in there. It looks dark in there, and I don't like the dark very much-"

"Seriously, Crona?" Soul asked, eyeing the slight boy. "You're a really strong tech, y'know. You shouldn't let stuff get you scared so easily. Especially since you can kick most things' ass, no problem."

"You- you really think so, Soul?" Crona looked up at him with big, glossy eyes and for a moment Soul was terrified that the other boy would start crying all over him. That sort of crap was Maka's department, not his.

Soul edged away. "Uh, yeah. You took on Medusa and Stein, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but...I wasn't alone. I was with Miss Marie. And anyway, I would've died if you and Maka hadn't helped." Crona blushed.

Soul eyed him. _What's with this guy?_ He shrugged and motioned at the vent. "Well, hurry up and get in there," he said. He looked at Black*Star as Crona wriggled into the vent. "Hey, did he tell you who he likes?"

Black*Star laughed so loudly that it shook the vent. Soul heard a yelp of pain from Crona as the skinny tech's feet disappeared. "Of course he told me! I'm such a big star, he had to tell me."

"Well?" Soul asked, impatient. "Who is it?"

"Isn't it obvious? He likes Maka," said Black*Star, shoving him out of the way of the vent. "Duh."

The light push sent Soul sprawling on his ass. _Crona likes Maka? It can't be..._ But it made sense. The way Crona followed her around all the time- he should've known sooner. _Whatever. Cool guys don't have anything to worry about, even when another guy is trying to move in on their partner._

There wasn't anything to worry about. Was there?

He remembered how Maka had stood up for Crona when Shibusen cut a deal with Medusa, furious at them for hurting him by letting the witch come there. Or how she had chased him down in the desert, and how she'd hugged him for such a long time while he cried all over her.

_There's no way. Maka was just being nice. ...Right?_

"Hey, Soul, move your ass!" Black*Star shouted from somewhere inside the vent. The noise rattled the entire vent and there was another whimper of pain from Crona somewhere ahead.

_Good, I hope it hurts_, Soul thought, suddenly far less sympathetic to the skinny tech's plight. For a moment he even hoped that Crona would fall headfirst into the locker room and be expelled for peeping. Not that this would happen, of course; Black*Star was caught spying on Tsubaki at least once a week and no one had tried to kick him out. But a guy could dream.

With a sigh, he got to his feet and climbed into the vent, but his mind was still racing that tight, nagging circle.

_Maka_... Did she like Crona? He'd always just assumed that she had chosen him, that he was her weapon and that was that. They had a bond that went deeper than the friendships or dating of kids in other high schools- they had to have absolute trust in one another, had to be willing to lay down their lives for each other, and had to connect their very souls. What could be more personal than that relationship?_  
_

Okay, so he could think of a few much more personal things to do with a girl than argue over who's turn it was to cook. _No way. Not gonna think about Maka like that!_ Crap. That might be a drop of blood on his nose.

Cringing, he turned and hastily wiped his nose on his sleeve. Black*Star helpfully rambled on to help distract from any other... unfortunate thoughts.

"Hurry up, Soul, you're taking forever. Jeez. A big star like me can't just wait around all day while you figure out how to climb into a vent..." Black*Star continued, but that was as much as Soul actually listened to. The rest, to him, could be summarized as 'blah blah BIG STAR blah blah I'm the greatest.'

Soul frowned as he crawled after Black*Star's voice, not really looking at the interior of the vent. How much longer would they be able to keep this crap up? His shoulders almost touched the sides of the narrow shaft and ahead of him, Black*Star's broader frame _did_ touch the sides. In a few months, they wouldn't be able to wedge themselves in here.

There was some scuffling ahead, the metallic thumps muffled somewhat by their bodies occupying the hollow space. Soul watched, dazed, as Black*Star wrestled Crona up against a grate while Crona whined the whole time about not being sure it was such a good idea. _There's just no way. How can he be good for her if he can't make up his mind about anything?_

And there, in the back of his head, he heard another voice, a familiar creaking voice that never failed to grate on his nerves. **And can _you_ make up your mind, Soul Eater? ****You don't want Maka for yourself, but you don't want anyone else to have her. What _do_ you want? Do you even know?**

Just like that, he could see the inside of the red room, the tiles stretched out around him, shining under the polished piano.

_I got rid of you. Maka and I stopped you._ He still had odd dreams about it, dreams of that dark box and the bright golden light of her diving through, soul first, to protect him from the black blood's control. They had won. They had... right?

The little demon's bulbous eyes glittered and he twitched against the song's tune. **How do you know I'm not you? You did spend an awful long time inside the Kishin's barrier.****  
**

Soul ground his teeth, sweat pricking his skin. _Not possible. I'm not insane. I was never insane. I'm-_

**Too cool?**

Before he could argue, there was a horrible groan and the floor lurched. No, not the floor. The vent.

Black*Star and Crona both looked up, their wide horrified eyes meeting Soul's.

"Oh, shiiiiiiii-"

They crashed through the vent and onto the tiles of the locker room floor amidst a rain of plaster and high-pitched shrieks from the girls.

Rubbing his head, Soul sat up, blinking in the dust and hoping to see a clear line to the exit. No such luck, of course.

Standing over him, wrapped only in a towel, Maka Albarn lifted a book over her head.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I watched the anime first, but now I'm reading the manga. I've just gotten to the point where things start to diverge a bit in the manga, so I'm sort of using elements of the stories from that to continue with enemies and stuff.

Sorry the update took a bit. I got incredibly sick for a couple of days with the flu.

**Warnings: **some language, tons of internal monologue in an effort to imitate manga/anime style, spoilers for anime/first 50-ish chapters of manga

* * *

Sid knelt across the low tea table from Lord Death, watching him sip tea through his mask. Somehow he never spilled, either. It wasn't something he'd thought about til he died and drinking got to be more challenging.

"Have you been by Dr. Stein's apartment lately?" Lord Death asked, his cheerful, doddering voice rising on a hopeful note. "Ms. Mjolnor has been going straight from class back home, so I haven't been able to talk to her."

"Well," Sid began. He and Stein were colleagues, but they didn't exactly hang out together. To be fair, no one hung out with Stein, except perhaps for Marie, but he couldn't honestly be sure what that was- care-taking or cohabitation or even dating. He didn't ask, either, because that would be rude and that's not the kind of man he was. "No. I haven't been over there."

They lapsed into silence for a moment. Sid had no idea what Lord Death was thinking, and it was impossible to read facial expressions when someone wore a mask. The quiet wasn't helping much, either.

"Have you talked to Death Scythe?" Sid asked. Not that he was trying to shove that responsibility onto someone else, but- yes, yes he was.

"Of course. He's been keeping tabs on Dr. Stien since the Kishin was first released. Since our battle with Arachnophobia, though, Stien has been holed up in his apartment and not even Spirit can get in."

Silence again, this time far more awkwardly. "So you want me to sneak in and look around," Sid deadpanned.

Lord Death clapped his hands and chuckled merrily. "Wonderful! I'm so glad we're on the same page." He waved cheerfully. "Let me know what you find out!"

Sid slumped. _So this is what it's come to... without the Kishin or Arachnophobia to worry about, we're reduced to sneaking into our faculty's apartments._ Stein had come back to them. He was still recovering, or so Nygus said, and Sid took her word for it. Being driven over the edge of by the Kishin's madness had to be terrible, but at least Stein had been brought back. As far as Sid was concerned, the man deserved a bit of peace and quiet._  
_

"I've been meaning to ask you, Sid," Lord Death continued. "When the barrier disappeared after Maka defeated the Kishin, did you see what happened to him?"

"Wha- what are you talking about, Lord Death?" Sid asked, jerking upright. His heart pounded, suddenly anxious. _Is that why he wants me to check on Stein? Did the Kishin somehow escape?_

But Lord Death wasn't paying much attention to Sid's reaction at this point, plowing on without acknowledging it. He sipped his tea. "He sort of unravelled, didn't he? All of the madness, just coming undone." Sid focused on the immobile white bone of the mask. "It was almost as if the bandages were holding him inside, wasn't it? And then everything unravelled."

_Holy crap! He _does_ think that Asura escaped. Is that even possible?_ Then again, none of them had seen the battle through that barrier. The overwhelming insanity wavelength had flickered and then snuffed, and he had been too busy being relieved to start checking for signs of escape immediately.

Oh, he had checked, of course. They all had. To do otherwise would be idiotic. But they hadn't checked right away- which was just as idiotic. _How could we be such fools?_

"Don't beat yourself up, Sid. We all made mistakes that day." Lord Death rose from the table, his movement considerably slowed after taking the Kishin's blast full in the face. His injuries had recovered rapidly, but that he was recovering at all was only due to his incredible power. "All of us..."

"Uh... don't beat yourself up, either, Lord Death," Sid answered awkwardly. _Dammit, I'm a zombie and he can still see right through me._ "I'll go talk to Stien and Marie. Was there anything else?"

After a long moment of hesitation, Lord Death nodded. "Yes, Sid. Asuza has taken over as Chief of Oceania, as you know, and she reported something strange in her area yesterday." The silly white skull mask continued to stare at him, but Sid could sense there was no cheer behind the dark eye sockets. "She hasn't reported back yet."

"But that's not like her," Sid burst out, catching on a moment too late that this was precisely the point. His perpetual grimace tightened and he instinctively hunched his shoulders. "Nygus and I will get on the first flight-"

"Not necessary," Lord Death interrupted. "I've already sent some students over to investigate that matter. There are other things of concern close to home, and that's where I need you right now."

Dutifully, Sid bowed his head. He'd carry out his orders, even if he wasn't too thrilled with the way Lord Death was doing things. "I understand, Lord Death, but... students!" Sid frowned. "Who did you send?"

* * *

"I can't believe you two tried to corrupt Crona like that!"

Soul's head throbbed with the words, which Maka had repeated every time he had so much as looked at her for their entire flight to Melbourne. It began or ended one of her rants about how all men were perverts and bastards and cheaters. He ground his teeth and clenched his fists at his sides whenever he saw tears filling her eyes over the hot flush on her cheeks.

_Dammit, Maka, can't you see I'm not like your dad? _He had been showing her otherwise since they'd met. He was better than Spirit, but no matter how many times he proved himself, she just didn't seem to believe it. What would it take for her to trust him?

"He's not all perverted like you and Black*Star. He's sweet and gentle and-"

"Shut up about how sweet and gentle he is," he snarled. "He's the one who gave me _this_." Soul yanked up the hem of his shirt over the long scar crossing his torso. As always, Maka flinched when she saw it.

"You asshole," she said, her face turned aside and angled so he couldn't see it past her hair. Her voice sounded choked, though he wasn't sure if it was rage or tears.

Part of him was horrified, as always, at the prospect of tears, even hers. Especially hers. Nothing got to him like Maka crying, nothing made him feel more terrible and more helpless than when she cried. And he was also... shaking. Angry with her, upset that she was crying about this. Didn't she see what he was going through right now? Between Crona liking her and falling into the bathroom and now Maka shouting at him, he was starting to feel overwhelmed.

_Stay cool, Soul. Stay cool._

She turned, and he saw the tears and the fury both shining there in her green eyes. "It's one thing to use your scar against me, but holding it against Crona... what the hell is wrong with you?"

"I don't hold it against you, Maka," he argued. "It's my own damn fault I have this scar. I'm the one who jumped in front of you, I'm the one who stood in front of Ragnarok in human form _on purpose. _Just like I did with Asura, just like I'll do with anyone else if I have to."

Maka inhaled sharply and stared at him, eyes wide in surprise, pupils dilated. There was a long moment of silence and Soul felt a surge of tension racing through him.

Had things ever been so off between them? When they had first partnered up, there had been the usual hitches and miscommunications as they got adjusted to one another, but now things seemed to be getting more and more confused. What had happened in the last few months? Had the Kishin's madness wavelength gotten to them? To him?

She took a step toward him and he relaxed for a moment. Now she would step into his arms and cry a little on his shirt and he'd get that strange warm feeling in his stomach where she was leaning against him. There would be that whiff of her shampoo under his nose as her pigtail slid along his cheek. He'd never tell her, but when she'd been paralyzed after their first encounter with Arachne and Giriko, he'd used her shampoo while she was in the hospital. The apartment didn't smell right without her there.

But she didn't hug him. She just stopped and stood there, her arms hanging limp at her sides as she stared at him. "You can't keep risking yourself like that, Soul," she said quietly. "You can't be so selfish."

"How is that selfish?" he burst out. _Seriously, what the hell is wrong with her? _"I'm willing to die for you, Maka."

Her chin lowered toward her collarbones and her eyes closed. He heard a soft sigh whisper across the space between them. "Well, maybe you shouldn't be so ready to throw your life away."

Soul jolted, from his very core all the way to his skin. "So I should just throw yours away instead?" he snapped, taking a step forward. He siezed her shoulders, and as always, he was slightly surprised at just how fragile she felt in his grasp.

No matter how many times he hugged her, held her hand, lifted her up, it always shocked him to realize that she was so delicate. The way she fought, fearlessly swinging him and leaping into action, he often forgot. He knew she could beat the crap out of him- she did it pretty regularly- and it wasn't always easy to resolve that with these skinny shoulders.

As always, when his hands closed around her, he instinctively eased up on his grasp so as not to hurt her. He felt her flinch anyway, felt her tense up and knew she'd clenched her fists at her sides.

"I'm supposed to protect you, Soul. I'm your Meister." She looked up, her green eyes meeting his, startling him with their intense sadness. He'd done it again; he'd made her feel worse.

"Maka..." he said. His hands tightened around her shoulders just a bit.

He stared at her face, realizing her skin looked incredibly soft, especially around her lips. It startled him, but somehow he managed not to flinch or gasp or twitch as he stared at her. _Crona wants to date her or something._

**What about you, Soul?**_  
_

_What _about _me? You're getting really annoying, you know. _He didn't want to consider the possibility that he had been hit too hard with the Kishin's wavelength, that he really was going insane. But hadn't they defeated the black blood together? He still had dreams about it, about the pure golden warmth of her soul pressed against his in a protective embrace.

Soul didn't realize that he had started to lean forward until he heard her catch her breath, her eyes widening as they met his, startled.

_I'm really gonna do it_, he thought, the steady inching forward turning time into an infinite slow crawl. His fingers crinkled the fabric of her coat as he held onto her, his heart pounding in anticipation.

But she turned her head away.

"Soul..." she said, planting a hand on his chest. He wasn't sure if it was meant to stop him, but it did, and he wondered if she felt how fast his heart was racing under her gloved fingers.

_Shit, I really messed up this time_.

"I'm sorry, Maka-"

She wasn't looking at him at all, though; she was staring at something down the runway. Slowly, he turned to stare in the same direction, gasping at the horrible beast that was clambering toward one of the planes.


End file.
